Steffani Niobe, Regina di Tebe Royal Opera House Agostino Steffani (who?) may have been consigned to a footnote in musical history but here’s why he was such a big deal in the realm of 17th century courtly…

Bizet Les Pecheurs de Perles Royal Opera House The mis en scène of some operas really is best left to the imagination. Penny Woolcock had a good crack at Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers at ENO last season…

London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Jurowski Royal Festival Hall As if it wasn’t enough to open a new London Philharmonic season with a simply tremendous performance of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony, Vladimir Jurowski could not resist adding a preface. And…

SATURDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2010 PROM 66: BERLIN PHILHARMONIC/ RATTLE Royal Albert Hall The Mahler had come the night before – this second Berlin Philharmonic Prom imaginatively chronicled the before and after. Foundations were laid in the sustained…

WEDNESDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER 2010 PROM 62: GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER/ BLOMSTEDT Royal Albert Hall Like the Matthias Grünewald paintings that inspired it, Paul Hindemith’s Symphony “Mathis der Maler” sounds somehow, and quite miraculously, to be illuminated from within.…

SUNDAY 29TH AUGUST 2010 PROM 58: CZECH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA/ GARDINER Royal Albert Hall If you didn’t know who was playing, the second theme of Dvorak’s Carnival Overture – clarinet in songful counterpoint with the homeliest of tunes…

FRIDAY 27TH AUGUST 2010 PROM 56: MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA/ VANSKA Royal Albert Hall In a former life when the Minnesota Orchestra was the Minneapolis Symphony and “Living Presence” was a phrase on the tip of every record buff’s…

TUESDAY 24TH AUGUST 2010 PROM 52: SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/ ASHKENAZY Royal Albert Hall The prospect of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra getting down under and dirty with Strauss and Scriabin got off to a frenetic start with Vladimir…

SUNDAY 22ND AUGUST 2010 PROM 49: A CELEBRATION OF RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN/ THE JOHN WILSON ORCHESTRA It was as close as we get to being guests on the 20th Century Fox soundstages circa.1955. As the Main Title…

MONDAY 16TH AUGUST 2010 PROM 41: LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/ GERGIEV Royal Albert Hall It was somewhat ironic that amidst the profusion of orchestral perfumes emanating from Scriabin’s 1st Symphony those seated closest to the orchestra were momentarily…